Irish and American Bar, Rue Royale—The Chap Book

The influential lithograph, Irish and American Bar, Rue Royale—The Chap Book, was created by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec French, 1864-1901, in 1895. This striking example of late 19th-century French graphic arts is a color lithograph executed on tan wove paper, a common support for the vibrant, often immediate poster art and prints that defined the Belle Époque. Lautrec was a central figure in documenting the fin-de-siècle nightlife of Paris, utilizing the newly popular printmaking medium to capture fleeting moments of public life with documentary precision.

Lautrec’s composition captures the cosmopolitan atmosphere suggested by the title, focusing on an establishment located on Rue Royale, an upscale Parisian thoroughfare frequented by international visitors. This particular image functioned as a promotional piece for The Chap Book, an influential American literary magazine famous for its modern aesthetic and utilization of leading French artists for its cover designs. Lautrec’s signature style—characterized by sharp outlines, flat color planes derived from Japanese woodblock prints, and a focus on intimate, often psychological, portraiture—is immediately evident in this work.

This piece is a historically significant example of artistic production in France, demonstrating the growing commercial application of fine art prints toward the end of the century. It is highly valued as both a document of Parisian social history and a key example of the artist’s mastery of lithography. This essential work of graphic design is preserved in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Due to its age and cultural importance, high-resolution images of this print are often available to the public under public domain guidelines for study and appreciation.